Usually, external structures, such as decks or porches, are built onto a building, such as a house or other dwelling, as a separate structure from the actual building. That is, the deck structure has its own components and structures, including flooring and support structures, that are independent from the building. Those deck structural elements are then connected into some portion of the house or building for securing the deck with the building. The scenario of a structurally independent deck is a particular case when the structure is added onto the building sometime after the building has been completed. However, even when the deck is being built as part of the construction of the new building, the structure of the deck is still generally independent from the floor and wall structures of the building and generally will not share such elements with the house.
Depending on the design of the deck, porch or other external structure, its reliance upon the actual building for structural support will vary. For those structures that are built with posts or beams surrounding the entire structure and thus supporting the entire periphery of the deck, the connection to the house can be more superficial and not as robust. That is because the deck is built as a standalone structure and is merely attached to the building to present it as part of the building and to interface with a door or other opening for walking onto the deck.
However, other designs will support only the outer or side edges of the deck with posts. In such a case, the inside edges or other edges that are against the building rely upon structural support from the actual building. In those scenarios, it is much more important that the deck be connected to the house in a structurally sound way. Some current solutions for securing such a deck structure with a building still fall short in various ways.
Particularly, the structural components of the deck, such as a ledger board or other component that defines the edge of the deck that abuts against the house, are often just bolted into a counterpart component, such as a floor band board, of the house. This involves drilling properly located holes through the brick, siding or other veneer into the band board of the house. In other solutions, different anchors or brackets might be screwed or mounted to an outer surface of the house band board. The proper placement and alignment of any bolts and brackets can be an issue in such scenarios, particularly when the deck is added to the building after the building is complete. Furthermore, as might be appreciated, such mounting systems rely entirely upon the interface of the bolt, bracket or other structure with the band board for load bearing purposes. Accordingly, the load bearing features of the interface and the strength of such components are often the deciding factor in the overall load that the deck can handle.
There is thus a need for an improvement in the way that external weight bearing structures, such as decks and porches, are mounted with and supported by a building. There is further a need for an improvement in such a structural interface in both the scenario where the external structure is being built in conjunction with the supporting building, and when the external structure is later added to the supporting building. These and other needs and issues are addressed by the invention as disclosed herein.